How do supply chain leaders make disruption less disruptive? How do they stop a tariff change, a raw material shortage, or a weather event from slowing everything down? And beyond all the hype, where is AI actually delivering real value in supply chain planning?
These questions were top of our mind as we headed to the 2025 Gartner® Supply Chain Planning Summit in London. At the summit, we saw a clear shift toward connected intelligence, more adaptive planning cycles, and a new way of thinking about how people and machines work together inside modern supply chains.
AI takes center stage
AI has officially moved past pilots and proofs of concept. It’s now creating practical, measurable impact across supply chain planning. Three themes stood out for us.
1. AI is now directly linked to business growth
The conversation is no longer only about optimization. It’s about growth, faster decisions, fewer delays, and more stable customer service. That’s becoming the new baseline for AI-enabled supply chain planning.
2. Complexity now needs intelligent automation
Today’s supply chains move too fast for manual workarounds. Teams are turning to AI-driven planning recommendations and advanced planning tools to deal with volume changes, shifting constraints, and everyday uncertainty at scale.
3. Trust between humans and intelligent systems is becoming a real differentiator
The companies seeing the most impact are redesigning planner roles. Machines take over the repetitive decisions. People focus on the strategic work—scenario analysis, risk sensing, and cross-functional alignment.
We also heard consistent proof that AI is cutting decision latency, improving inventory outcomes, speeding up planning cycles, and giving teams more confidence. The overall message is that AI is becoming foundational across the end-to-end supply chain.
Bridging the gap between planning and execution
Another major takeaway for us was the industry-wide push to reduce the persistent gap between planning and what actually happens on the factory floor. Four ideas stood out:
- Start with feasibility: Validating capacity upfront leads to more reliable plans. When volume and sequence get set at the same time, downstream volatility increases.
- Separate commitments from stretch goals: Knowing what’s truly deliverable versus what’s aspirational reduces friction and supports better decisions.
- Move toward shorter, more integrated cycles: Shifting from weekly cycles to more frequent planning windows improves visibility, speeds up detection of issues, and strengthens coordination across demand, supply, and production.
- Fix both human and technical communication gaps: Fragmented systems still cause handoff issues. Automated, bi-directional integration supported by consistent S&OE checkpoints is proving essential to turning plans into execution-ready actions.
Merck’s transformation journey
On day one, Merck, the global healthcare and life sciences company, shared its supply chain transformation from the main stage. Its healthcare business runs 18 manufacturing sites and supplies medicines to nearly 90 million patients worldwide.
In the past, Merck’s operations were siloed. Disconnected KPIs slowed decision-making, and limited scenario planning made it difficult to manage their global network. Their goal was clear: build integrated operations planning for faster, data-driven decisions and better collaboration.
Merck is partnering with Blue Yonder to modernize its supply chain. Blue Yonder is being embedded into AI-powered planning processes to connect every part of the network and create a single source of truth. This approach gives teams better visibility, more interoperability, and faster decision-making across the board.
With stronger connectivity between planning and execution, Merck can reduce silos and move toward true network-wide collaboration. And with machine-learning-powered scenario planning, the company will be able to anticipate operational costs, run predictive margin analysis, and make quicker, fact-based decisions that support both local and global targets.
Building supply chains that think, learn, and adapt
The biggest takeaway from the summit is that supply chains are shifting from reactive crisis management to proactive, intelligence-led decision-making. And Blue Yonder’s recognition as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Supply Chain Planning mirrors this industry-wide shift.
As companies move away from spreadsheets and towards connected platforms powered by data, automation, and AI, they’re improving planning speed, accuracy, and resilience.
For us, the direction is clear, AI-enabled planning is quickly becoming the backbone of resilient, supply chains.
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